Holiday Tour Part 1

Sorry for the lack of updates but I am finally settling back following my recent (Military history) Holiday tour through Belgium and Netherlands. One of the benefits of having a son interested in Military history and with only the two of us in the van means we didn’t need to make any of the usual holiday compromises. As a tiny bit of background we did a similar holiday about 11 years ago visiting battlefields across northern France and WW1. We had then agreed we should go again so this trip was conceived. 

Now I am conscious that a number of you following this blog are still working hard and or have many other family commitments making such a trip impossible, it is not in my nature to try and impress anybody and that is not my intention. I am sharing our trip as I know a few of you will be genuinely interested and perhaps a few will be inspired to visit some or all of the places we managed to get to.

I had 10 days away from home and we managed to do something everyday in fact it was pretty jam packed every day. 

Living in the North of England means getting to the south coast takes pretty much a whole day and I would then be picking my son up outside London. To break the journey down I visited the Imperial War Museum at Duxford. I had been before a lot of years ago. Although slightly expensive it is well worth the visit and I had a good couple of hours. For those who haven’t been to Duxford it houses the IWM collection of aircraft and planes, gives flying displays and also has one hanger devoted to the ground war. It is a very expansive site.

Plenty of spitfires on display

Some interesting armoured vehicles in the Battle of Britain section including this lovely Beaverette

Lots on show as to be expected

There is also a Cold War section

There is a separate building for the US Airforce, it’s almost impossible to capture the scale of this collection, which had everything right up to the B52 which made the Flying Fortress look small !

The building with the ground war has many many interesting items amongst them Monty’s command tank from the Desert.

After this very enjoyable diversion the next day we headed across the channel to Calais to Dunkirk.

Set back from the beach is a small and interesting Fort

I took this from an aerial photo at the small museum

You can explore both inside and outside

Accessing a number of the bunkers

Much of the was barracks for soldiers and officers

Historically the Fort was part of the defences built after the Franco-Prussian war started in 1878. By General Sere De Rivières, it has seen a fair bit of action, partly destroyed during the evacuation of the British BEF from the nearby beaches, captured by the Germans, and then held by the Germans right to the end of the war.

We also visited the beach

Walking to the Zuydcoote Battery, this was connected to the Fort and is on a similar scale

An imposing position looking over the beaches

It was once quite an impressive site but partly destroyed by bombing during WW2 it is now in pretty bad condition made colourful by the extensive graffiti

That’s it for now, next up on our tour ‘Market Garden’ but before that we have played our next ACW Shenandoah battle so I need to post that.

Thanks for checking in Matt

British Napoleonic Commanders and some Persian Inspiration

Filling in the gaps of time before we head off to Europe I have been picking off few more painting bits.

Also picked up at Partizan were these British commanders all are Perry figures. 

Here are the five commanders painted over the last week or so, next up I need to do some larger bases with two and three figures per base but that will have to wait till after our trip

I have also quickly painted up a couple of spare Germans I had, above a Panzerschrek mainly as for CoC you get one with the command base in a standard German force.

Also a few spare infantry to boost my Germans upto six squads

I mentioned on my previous post I was travelling down to London, while this was mainly a social trip it coincided with a British museum special exhibition looking at the Persians and their influence on the Greeks. Lots of interesting stuff on show, here are just a couple of bits

Bowl/plate with Persian archer

North African warrior in Persian armour

Lots of gold found in Bulgaria ?

I also wandered around the rest of the museum, some Greek armour on show

and a famous ancient Briton shield

That’s all for now, I hope to share some photos from our trip but this will depend on time and internet connections.

Thanks for checking in

Matt 👍

French Napoleonic Commanders, Wales and more

I seem to be moving from one holiday to another at the moment so not much gaming but I have managed to paint/complete a couple of figures, both French Command figures for the Peninsular.

Both are Perry French Infantry Colonels

Slightly different sized bases, after Partizan I do have quite a few command bases to put together.

We spent last week on a family holiday on Anglesey in north wales. The weather was reasonably kind and we spent our time on the beach, in the Sea or visiting stuff and eating.

South Stack lighthouse

Llanddwyn Bay

The remains of the Royal Court of the Welsh Princes 13th Century 

Penmon lighthouse and Puffin Island, great for a picnic

Beaumaris Castle a masterpiece of Edward I

In the next few days I am heading to London and hoping to get to the Persian exhibition at the British museum. Then I am taking the campervan over to Europe with my son on a boys only military history tour. We are heading to visit the Market Garden Battlefields, then forts along the Meuse and back hopefully via Ligny and Waterloo. So no gaming for a bit but plenty of fun 👍

Matt